Alan M. Siegel's Blog, page 13

Simply Smarter: A newsletter on brand experience (May 2023)

In this month’s newsletter, we proudly showcase branding work our teams have created, including the newly launched visual identity for the U.S. Army, naming and strategy work for The Home Depot and 2023 Indigo Design Award winners: Exelon, Jacobs, Livian and Glanbia. Congrats to our clients and teams on bringing home the gold and silver!

 

U.S. Army

For the first time since 2001, the U.S. Army has introduced a new brand intended to spotlight opportunities the U.S. Army provides youth and to increase enlistment numbers. Learn how, as a part of Team DDB, we redefined a storied American brand for a new generation.

Read More

Livian (Gold Winner in Branding for Real Estate)

Hoping to build stronger post-transaction relationships with customers, Keller Williams set out to create a real estate tech platform that unites agents and homeowners under one digital umbrella. Find out how we created a distinct brand identity that differentiated Livian from other platforms.

Read More

Exelon (Gold Winner in Branding for Energy)

After splitting into an upstream generation company and a downstream utility, the nation’s largest utility company approached us to rethink its brand strategy, visual identity and experience.

Read More

Jacobs (Gold Winner in UX, Interface + Navigation; Silver Winner in Website Design)

We go behind the scenes with our practitioners to learn about creating a new website for engineering services company Jacobs. The revamped digital experience provides an opportunity to amplify Jacobs’ story and digitally express the brand through the power of people-focused storytelling.

Read More

The Home Depot

Since its founding, The Home Depot has powered renovation for millions of customers. But the time had come for the brand to make some renovations of its own, particularly to the Pro Xtra Loyalty Program.

Read More

Glanbia (Gold Winner in Branding for Food)

We partnered with the global nutrition company to help evolve the brand in line with the redefined direction of the business and create a people-centered brand experience.

Read More

The post Simply Smarter: A newsletter on brand experience (May 2023) appeared first on Siegel+Gale.

Simply Smarter: A newsletter on brand experience

In this month’s newsletter, we proudly showcase branding work our teams have created, including the newly launched visual identity for the U.S. Army, naming and strategy work for The Home Depot and 2023 Indigo Design Award winners: Exelon, Jacobs, Livian and Glanbia. Congrats to our clients and teams on bringing home the gold and silver!

 

U.S. Army

For the first time since 2001, the U.S. Army has introduced a new brand intended to spotlight opportunities the U.S. Army provides youth and to increase enlistment numbers. Learn how, as a part of Team DDB, we redefined a storied American brand for a new generation.

Read More

Livian (Gold Winner in Branding for Real Estate)

Hoping to build stronger post-transaction relationships with customers, Keller Williams set out to create a real estate tech platform that unites agents and homeowners under one digital umbrella. Find out how we created a distinct brand identity that differentiated Livian from other platforms.

Read More

Exelon (Gold Winner in Branding for Energy)

After splitting into an upstream generation company and a downstream utility, the nation’s largest utility company approached us to rethink its brand strategy, visual identity and experience.

Read More

Jacobs (Gold Winner in UX, Interface + Navigation; Silver Winner in Website Design)

We go behind the scenes with our practitioners to learn about creating a new website for engineering services company Jacobs. The revamped digital experience provides an opportunity to amplify Jacobs’ story and digitally express the brand through the power of people-focused storytelling.

Read More

The Home Depot

Since its founding, The Home Depot has powered renovation for millions of customers. But the time had come for the brand to make some renovations of its own, particularly to the Pro Xtra Loyalty Program.

Read More

Glanbia (Gold Winner in Branding for Food)

We partnered with the global nutrition company to help evolve the brand in line with the redefined direction of the business and create a people-centered brand experience.

Read More

The post Simply Smarter: A newsletter on brand experience appeared first on Siegel+Gale.

Unlocking Brand: Brand as a strategic business asset

In this episode, Melanie Marcus, CMO, Surescripts, the nation’s leading health information network, joined our colleagues Brian Rafferty, Global Head of Research & Insights, and Margaret Molloy, Global CMO, for an in-depth conversation that explored how to leverage brand as a tool to inform your overall strategy.

Join the Future of Branding community. Listen to the podcast via Apple Podcasts and Spotify

The post Unlocking Brand: Brand as a strategic business asset appeared first on Siegel+Gale.

Bring the bold, banish the bland

With the arrival of spring comes the rebirth of life—and an awakening of brands from their blanding hibernation.  Brands such as Burberry and Louisa Parris have debuted new identities, ushering in a renaissance of vibrancy.  Let’s explore the past, present and future of the blanding trend and offer three steps to banish the bland and to rejuvenate your brand.  

Started in 2018, the era of “blanding,” as Bloomberg described it, led to a wide array of DTC brands with remarkably similar minimalist aesthetics—“disruptive startups slavishly  follow[ing] an identikit formula of business model, look and feel, and tone of voice.”   

By July 2022, The Fashion Law noted, “As part of a larger trend in branding, or better yet, blanding, a growing number of high fashion and luxury brands—and other consumer goods and tech companies, as well—are looking to spartan logos, which are ‘designed not to stand out at all, but to blend in.’” Referencing the move toward digital and e-commerce, they noted this move had “largely been attributed to the desire of brands to use the same logo more seamlessly across multiple formats.”  

While early adopters of the style were a marked contrast from established brands, the market became saturated with companies using uniform approaches to brand identity. A proliferation of best practices and pre-built solutions with ready-made platforms, design systems and branding methodologies was an engine for blanding. A Bloomberg TikTok that made the rounds in May 2022 highlighted why big brands were shedding depth and detail for minimal simplicity.   

While the blanding trend is called a move toward simplicity and minimalism, we disagree with that sentiment—after all, we are known as The Simplicity Company. Branding with simplicity is not bland; rather, simplicity counters the blanding trend. It distills the essence of a brand to create strategic and expressive identities that amplify a brand’s true spirit. Simplicity breathes life into a brand to set it apart from others, not to homogenize it, but rather to find out what differentiates it and showcase that with clarity. Branding exists to differentiate!  

Looking forward, simple yet dynamic brand identities are increasingly important as brands think about engaging Millennials and Gen Z—who are interested in compelling, purposeful brands. They want brands that deliver creativity and engagement with customized, personal experiences. To ensure your brand banishes the stale blanding trend and joins the ever-growing wave of brands breathing fresh, new life, we propose three ways to move from sterile to striking.  

Find your purpose  

Purpose is the nucleus of a brand’s identity, permeating every touchpoint. The best brands develop a strong positioning that resonates with audiences and walks the talk, both internally and externally. Before even beginning to craft a logo, you should define who you are and what sets you apart. You need to understand your overall strategy as a brand and bring that to life in the logo, embedding that into the company’s identity and its DNA.   

Shift from operational to emotional  

Brand expression can have many technical considerations, but instead of being limited by them, lean into them to find ways for your unique story to come through. Your expression should be poetic, not prosaic. Ask yourself, “What differentiates us from everyone else?” And use that distinction to create emotional connections with your audiences in each and every channel.   

Build unique experiences  

Signature experiences prioritizing your purpose, promise, and personality can catapult your brand to stardom and engagement. To save yourself from making a bland brand, it’s imperative to prototype such experiences early in the rebranding process. Envision how your brand will appear in the world. Even visualize said experience without your logo. Your experience should be so unique and “on brand” that you shine no matter what.  

To evolve from bland to brand, harness true simplicity, find your purpose, make emotional connections and build unique experiences. This approach to branding will differentiate you, setting you apart from the masses and creating compelling moments with your target audiences. And that’s never bland.   

  

 Clinton Clarke is Digital Creative Director

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Unlocking Brand: Impact of a rebrand one year in

In this episode, Michelle Leyden Li, CMO of GlobalFoundries joined our President of the Pacific Rim Jason Cieslak and General Manager of the West Coast, Katie Conway to explore the lessons learned and the results experienced from rolling out the new GlobalFoundries brand one year ago.

 
Join the Future of Branding community. Listen to the podcast via Apple Podcasts and Spotify

The post Unlocking Brand: Impact of a rebrand one year in appeared first on Siegel+Gale.

CMO Panel: AAPI Leadership + Inclusive Storytelling

Continuing our Inclusive Storytelling series, we honored Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month with a Future of Branding panel on AAPI Leadership + Inclusive Storytelling.

Margaret Molloy was joined by Alex Ho (Terminix), Shiv Singh (LendingTree), Kelly Liang (Discord), Sunil Rajaraman (GoodRX), Amy Leung (BNY Mellon), and Rich Narasaki (Carbon) for a conversation that explored how each panelist’s brand is celebrating AAPI Month, balancing authenticity with action, and cultivating inclusive storytelling all year long. Panelists also shared their personal stories.

 
Join the Future of Branding community. Listen to the podcast via Apple Podcasts and Spotify

The post CMO Panel: AAPI Leadership + Inclusive Storytelling appeared first on Siegel+Gale.

CMO Panel: Pride + Inclusive Storytelling

Continuing in our Inclusive Storytelling series, in this episode we honored Pride Month 2022 with a Future of Branding CMO Panel: Pride + Inclusive Storytelling.

Margaret Molloy was joined by Maeve DuVally (Goldman Sachs), Patrick Lenihan (Grindr), Bruce Rohr (JW Marriott, Marriott International), Kristof Neirynck (Avon), Kate Huyett (Bombas), Meghan Stabler (BigCommerce), and Chiqui Cartagena (USAID) for a conversation that explored how brands are observing Pride Month, balancing authenticity with action and how brands and marketers can cultivate inclusion all year long. Panelists also shared their personal journeys as L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ marketing and communications leaders.

 
Join the Future of Branding community. Listen to the podcast via Apple Podcasts and Spotify

The post CMO Panel: Pride + Inclusive Storytelling appeared first on Siegel+Gale.

Unlocking Brand: Building a brand fit for the future

In this episode, our West Coast General Manager, Katie Conway, Group Director of Experience, Jared Fink, and Group Director of Brand-led Change, Gretchen Huestis, lead an in-depth conversation that examined how companies can build distinct and compelling brand-led experiences that create lasting impact.

 
Join the Future of Branding community. Listen to the podcast via Apple Podcasts and Spotify

The post Unlocking Brand: Building a brand fit for the future appeared first on Siegel+Gale.

Unlocking Brand: The evolution of HPE

In this episode, Howard Belk, our Co-CEO and Chief Creative Officer, and Matthew Egan, our Managing Director, Strategy, were joined by Jennifer Temple, EVP and Chief Communications Officer, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), the global edge-to-cloud company, for an in-depth conversation on how a brand can drive change forward.

Join the Future of Branding community. Listen to the podcast via Apple Podcasts and Spotify

The post Unlocking Brand: The evolution of HPE appeared first on Siegel+Gale.

Surescripts: brand as a strategic business asset

In our Unlocking Brand series, a CMO joins our branding experts to explore an exceptional brand-building case. In this installment, “Brand as a strategic business asset,” our Global CMO, Margaret Molloy, moderates a conversation between Melanie Marcus, CMO, Surescripts, and our Global Director of Business Analytics + Insights, Brian Rafferty.

The conversation explores some of the most frequently asked questions by CMOs, especially B2B CMOs, on such themes as how to manage brand as an asset, how to extend perceptions beyond the original offering, the role of research in creating clarity and how to achieve C-level alignment.

The conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity. For the complete conversation, head over to Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Margaret Molloy: Melanie, when you commenced your role in 2017, what was the context of the Surescripts brand?

Melanie Marcus: At the time, Surescripts had just finished building electronic prescribing across the country, and that’s what Surescripts was known for. It had also just finished launching several new products beyond electronic prescribing that would exchange clinical information, medication information, etc., across the healthcare ecosystem in the United States. We needed to be known for more than electronic prescribing in order for those to be successful.

Margaret Molloy: That’s the heart of this case study and that classic question that Brian and I, and our colleagues, get all the time: From a brand that’s known for excellence in one area, how do you extend that perception? Brian, how do you, in the context of Surescripts, think about what’s the job to be done by a brand in that setting?

Brian Rafferty: Brand has many jobs. But one of its first jobs on which to build at these points is to get people in the consideration mindset, if you will, for what the company offers. Job number two is that brand is the way to ensure that the future course is set in the direction you want it to go and to align everyone to that direction. Then, ideally, all decisions are made with that direction in mind, “What does the brand stand for? What should the brand stand for going forward? How are we going to make that happen?”

Margaret Molloy: So, pick up that point, Melanie, regarding the brand in action. Can you illustrate that for us? The implication is that it’s more than words and pictures, and it sounds like a strategic asset.

Melanie Marcus: Brand is reputation, and it’s what’s in the room before you get there. It’s more than if your reputation is good or great. It’s, “Is it what you mean it to be?” Our purpose is “Surescripts serves the nation through simpler, trusted health intelligence sharing in order to increase patient safety, lower costs and improve the quality of care.” Is your purpose in the room before you get there? If it is, then your path, once you get to the room and you’re working with customers or prospects, is a lot easier than if you go into the room and have to build or defend against something that is not necessarily what you want. You don’t want to be in a transactional business; you want to be in a relationship business. If you’re in a relationship business, a brand reputation is a part of what you’re known for before you enter that room and why someone picks up the phone to call you when they have another business issue that you might be able to solve.

Margaret Molloy: Critical to advancing that mission is CEO and C-level alignment among your peers. Talk to us about how you’ve continued to grow that through your tenure at Surescripts.

Melanie Marcus: The first thing that was important to me in looking at the job at Surescripts was that the senior team and the CEO were very much on board with brand as an important asset. If I had come into an organization that was just about lead generation, brand may not have been on the table and it would’ve been a much steeper hill to climb. The second important thing is that if you’re working on big brand work, you want to choose an agency that will stay with you for a long time. That’s why we selected Siegel+Gale as our brand experience agency. This is not just a year—this is a long time, part of who the organization is—so you want to ensure you have an agency you can present to your executive team or your CEO.

Margaret Molloy: Brian, what have you observed as you work with Melanie in this process around C-level alignment?

Brian Rafferty: One important thing is having them all feel like they are the contributors who are truly building the brand. Melanie has done this well: not bringing everyone to the table in a way where they feel like they’re being talked to but where they add value to the conversation. At Surescripts, I’ve observed that every senior executive has seen these opportunities to think about and talk about brand as being this moment of, “Okay, I get to step away from my immediate concerns and immediate role and get to think strategically about the future of the organization, where it should go, and what the challenges are.” That means that what you do from a brand standpoint will be effective because everybody is aligned and feels like they have a stake in its impact and importance.

Margaret Molloy: Melanie, now that you’ve had the benefit of five years of this brand work and more on the horizon, what excites you, what continues to excite you about Surescripts and your brand programs there? And what’s your advice to other CMOs who are inspired by your journey and the work you’ve done to build the brand?

Melanie Marcus: It’s an honor to work in an organization where you believe in the purpose. I’m also excited about employee engagement. It’s about realizing this brand and bringing all employees into the activation. My advice to CMOs is this: make sure you have a like-minded organization. Building a brand is a lot of work, and it may not pay off to start an organization that isn’t quite there. But once you’re there, do not expect the whole thing to be built in a year. Bite it off in small pieces that are aligned with where you are as a business at that point, and eventually, it’ll evolve.

Margaret Molloy: Brian, similar question to you: what are your observations working over the five years with Surescripts that may inform lessons for other CMOs, best practices, things to avoid, etc.?

Brian Rafferty: What I’ve found most pleasurable and fulfilling working with Melanie at Surescripts is you feel like the work is having an impact. Things start changing, and you see the impact happening—it’s not abstract; rather, it’s tangible and real. And don’t just try to do some huge thing and do everything all at once. I think it is about making that connection. Think about the business and what it needs. And then, ask yourself how you can craft an initiative that will both deliver some long-term benefits from a brand-building standpoint.

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